BaronBl00d Why is Ernest Dickerson a Master of Horror? Because he directed Surviving the Game and Demon Knight? Hmmm. Definitely not one of the better moments of the series, yet not a total waste of time nor talent. Two youths, bored and one in particular having issues with the break-up of his family, decide to visit a morgue at night for laughs. Laughs is not what they find but rather vampires. Both get bitten eventually, and what we have here is a story about vampirism from the bitten's perspective. Been there - seen it before. The first fifteen minutes or so are very creepy and eerie. Dickerson, despite my sarcasm, has talent, but the story completely falls apart toward the middle and I couldn't even find it by the end. The acting is all acceptable. Yes, Michael Ironsides is in it. Yes, he looks very creepy. He also is given very little to do. Truth be told: I was very disappointed with this episode.

MARIO GAUCI Another less-than-enthusing entry in this erratic series concerns one of the most abused subjects in horror-film history i.e. vampirism – and, yet, it has rarely been dealt with such a visceral (and frankly off-putting) approach. The blood flows in bucketfuls here and rather than bite its victims, the creature tears open their throat like a werewolf or a latter-day zombie would! The chief vampire is played by Michael Ironside (as Mr. Chaney!) in full Jack (THE SHINING) Nicholson mode, while his victims/successors are your typical teens: one white and one black, obsessed with carnage-happy video games but who cringe in the face of real death – so they dare one another to enter a morgue at night and take a good look at the latest 'intern'…and that is where their troubles begin. Their reactions, however, are different: while the black boy seems resigned to have joined the ranks of the undead (culminating in a predictable coda, down to the ironic closing line, as he sets out to 'infect' The Big Apple), the other resists – especially after Ironside kidnaps his kid sister to be the blood donor in his initiation! – and commits suicide, awaiting the dawn tied to a cross, in a show-stopping finale. Along the way, the film references NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968; a quotation of the famous line "They're coming to get you, Barbara!"), AN American WEREWOLF IN London (1981; the white kid who escapes the initial attack feels remorse for having abandoned his pal to his fate), BLACK SABBATH (1963; the black kid appears at the other's home claiming to be all right and pleading with his friend to let him in) – and, for good measure, we get various snippets from the Browning/Lugosi Dracula (1931) conveniently showing on TV!

Witchfinder General 666 Generally speaking, I am a huge fan of the great "Masters Of Horror" series, but one has to say that the individual episodes differ immensely in quality. While some episodes, such as Dario Argento's "Pelts" or Takashi Miike's "Imprint" are utterly brilliant, some other episodes are pure entertainment, and some episodes, such as Mick Garris' "Chocolate" or Tobe Hooper's "Dance Of The Dead" were, as far as I am considered quite disappointing. "The V-Word" directed by Ernest K. Dickerson (I wonder what qualifies him as a 'Master Of Horror' anyway), however, is by far the worst episode of this otherwise great Horror anthology. Not only is the story ridiculous and the suspense almost nonexistent, even worse, this quite poor attempt of an MoH episode was so obviously made to advertise a Video game, which the main protagonists not only play all the time, but about which everybody talks about throughout the episode. The performances are also quite poor, the only true reason not to skip this episode is the great Michael Ironside, who at least gives this thing a little bit of eeriness.I won't bother to describe the plot, since it it so thin that even a short description would mean writing a spoiler. "The V-Word" is watchable for Michael Ironside, but otherwise it's a waste of time. Watch ANY other MoH-episode before giving this a try.

enw Horror and science fiction aren't what they used to be – nowadays this stuff is strictly for the kiddies. Unfortunately, the kiddies aren't what they used to be either.In the old days the moans and groans were usually accompanied by the semblance of a story – today, the movies are just boring video games. So why the ten stars? Because this particular segment of a just as boring television series also serves as a relevant comment on the paucity of the modern version and the existence it reflects. It may not be intended as such, but so much the better.The V word in question is Vampire – it might also have been titled: NOT JUST ANOTHER VAMPIRE MOVIE. Of course, in the current political situation, the implication is something else.Here, the Pentagon with its traditional satanic shape doubles for Castle Dracula, as it did, when another war, where V did not exactly stand for Victory, was fought by its Victims. At this point, however, our two teenage heroes are still in training, indifferently blasting away at "bandits" on their Nintendo.They decide to pay a nocturnal visit to a funeral home, since none of them has ever seen a dead person. It never occurs to them that they have never seen anything else.Why there would be anything remotely disquieting about a coffin shop is anybody's guess, but sure enough a fanged MICHAEL IRONSIDE pops out and kills the black boy, who in turn VAMPIRIZES the white one. Yawn.Still, the real horror is yet to come! Returning to his family, he finds them as zombie-like as ever, no one seeming to care about or even noticing his condition.This is a nightmare world of hate and indifference, mothers, who wouldn't know a maternal instinct from a sitcom, and fathers only interested in satisfying their pedophilia, where you are invited to share the satisfaction of seeing your disgusting little sister slaughtered. For once the complete predictability and offering of torture as entertainment works for the "story", since all concerned are certifiable psychopaths without a glimmer of human sentiment.And so in spite of every tired cliché and silly makeup effect, the result is truly chilling. In other words, it's the kind of heart-warming experience that makes you want to take your kids out behind the barn and shoot them.Along the way, we are treated to a plethora of cinematic quotations from "I never drink – blood" to "They're coming to get you, Barbara", perhaps to remind us of the gradual disintegration of the genre. I'm afraid there's no need.